Condensed Matter Physics Seminar
2 p.m., Thursday, October 17, 2002
Room 1201, Physics Building
Spin waves in a dilute spin-1/2 Bose gas
James Williams
(NIST - Gaithersburg)
Abstract: An ultra-cold Bose gas of two level atoms can be thought
of as a spin-1/2 Bose gas. It supports spin wave collective modes due to the
exchange mean field. Such collective spin oscillations have been observed in
recent experiments at JILA with Rb-87 atoms confined in a harmonic trap above
the transition temperature Tc for Bose-Einstein condensation. We present the
kinetic theory for this system, both above and below Tc. We compare our
calculations of the collective mode frequencies and damping rates to
experimental data and find excellent agreement. Finally, we give a summary of
possible extensions of this work, for example, to an ultra-cold Fermi gas of two
level atoms.
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Host: Das Sarma
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